Reviews

“A traditional hex-based wargame of unusual elegance, one that is perfect for genre newcomers but equally satisfying to veterans."
9/10 – PC Power Play

“Accessible yet deep, attractive and with an AI which teaches you the core of the game by beating you around the head.”
– Rock Paper Shotgun

About This Game

Unity of Command is an innovative and refreshing operational-level wargame that covers the entire 1942/43 Stalingrad Campaign on the Eastern Front. Playable from both the Axis and Soviet perspective, it strives to recreate the strategy, the forces involved and the general tension of that crucial period in World War II.

Experience the highly fluid, enormously large battles of maneuver in a turn-based strategy setting. Take command in this mobile, back-and-forth sort of war where logistics and poor weather are often the decider, and defeat and victory are sometimes just a mile, or a day, apart.

Very good game, nice playing mechanics, a challenging game (achieving brilliant victory is very hard, at least for me) and very good graphics style and gaming music, it's the kind of game that seduces any strategy gamer and makes him love it.Totally recommend it to all turn-based strategy games fans. I believe it's one of the standout TBS games that were released in the last years.

If you've never played a turn-based, operational-level strategy game before, this is the best starting point. The intuitive UI and the kind of cartoony art assets make for a game that feels very inviting. However, this game is hard, but in a good way. Your onus as the player is to be clever, to examine the situation and find weak points in your enemy's defenses and assess risk and reward. You end up thinking like a World War 2 general after you play a little bit, and that's really cool.

+ Minimalist, aesthetically pleasing design and visuals; keeps the game from appearing to be daunting or intimidating+ Soundtrack, while limited, helps one to focus adequately+ User interface is both clean and intuitive+ The challenge, and subsequent feeling of reward, is increased by many subtle factors; namely, these include: supply lines, weather, and terrain+ The added features of partisans, bridge demolition, air support, and reinforcements all lend to a feeling of depth and a vital need to remain calculating+ Much of the strategic nuances are carefully understated, making the gameplay appear simpler and more inviting+ Reinforcements are only available from a limited pool, forcing you to utilize your existing resources carefully

- Learning curve, while not readily apparent, can prove to be somewhat steep- Ultimately, there are fewer available campaigns that one would like- Dramatically underwhelming tutorial- Crippling lack of display options- Multiplayer is direct-connect only, and has some functionality issues (although it is quite fun if you can get it working correctly)

The good:I like the simplistic gameplay, and the focus on keeping your supply lines intact while pushing forwards. That´s what this game is about. Capturing objectives while keeping your units in supply so they don´t run out of juice on the front lines. All within a tight turn limit.It´s an intriguing and (to me) novel concept.

The bad:It´s frustrating beyond belief. Not because it´s hard (it is) but because it´s to damn random. +Pushing an enemy off a tile is random.+Getting "Overrun" results, which allow you to attack again in the same turn, is random.+A battle can randomly turn out to not go as predicted and you don´t defeat a unit that you needed gone.+Bad weather which heavily favours the defender (you are never the defender) may randomly show up and completely screw over your push for the objective.+Specialists (expensive and often crucial) within your units may or may not be among the casualties when the unit fights.

The problem with that is, the game does not give you the time for this kind of randomness. The turn limits are so tight that any one of these events can screw you over. Sure you might still beat the mission but the game differentiates between normal, decisive and brilliant victories. Many follow up missions are barred behind decisive victories and some even behind brilliant victories.So you try over and over again, without any change in strategy (once you got it down) and hope that you get enough "Overrun" results with your armoured units and you hope that your push doesn´t get stuck in bad weather until you finally beat it in time.

Due to this, I can´t really recommend it as much as I like the concept of the game.

This expression indicates Player's confusion and lack of understanding. When confronted with game mechanic he cannot understand, Player mumbles "b-b-but muh supply lines" or "muh supply lines mutha♥♥♥♥a". This is usually followed by getting encircled and losing all his panzer divisions.

I was really missing Panzer General series and its operational level simulation. This game delivered but also gave me something new. The main innovation, suppy lines, has a big effect. One must think about encirclement and weak points instead of wiping out every unit in one's path. It's also important not to leave your supply lines exposed as having them disrupted even once can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

The mechanics are fairly easy to master and the game can tell you how many units you can expect to destroy/lose in any given encounter. There are many interactions to consider (terrain, weather, entrenchment) and since its an operational level game you can be winning individual shootouts yet lose the big battle because you are acting too carefully. The game takes about 20 hours to fully master but provides replay value as you can try to win every battle with a brilliant victory or just try a slightly different approach.

Unlike PG you can finish each scenario in one sitting. The size of the maps is pretty manageable. There's no such diversity of units as in that game but I didn't really miss it. Ultimately the most interesting thing about the game is making decisions of how many units to commit, where and for how long and doing it all without outrunning your supply lines, often this requires coordination between units.

My two complaints are: the AI is a little weak, enough to provide a challenge but not enough to really surprise you and often committing foolish errors; the other is that battles can only be played in a pretty strict sequence. So if you finish a campaign and want to replay a battle from near the beginning, the later battles will become inaccessible.

I loved the game enough to buy all the expansions and play them through several times.

My wish for the game would be that units carried over somehow. It was great to see my units in PG progress from green to elite and encouraged me to be careful and avoid throwing units into meatgrinders. Although bashing at a city while suffereing bad losses in order to achieve your objective is often needed in UoC and is an interesting part of the game since it forces you to take risks.

I'm still looking for a game that would combine this kind of battle simulation with an economic simulation since as they say WWII was won in the factories.

Unity of Command is like no other game I've played. Attractive design and wonderful UI make me wish all other strategy games I play looked this good. Having 25+ years of PC gaming xp that started with a Commodore 64, this game is on my very short list of best ever! I keep comming back to it and never know why I left.

The user interface is perfection and does not take up 40% of the screen like other strategy games. I love that you can see the risk involved in your attack moves beforehand so your can approach conflicts in your own way. Really like the combined arms play and excellent balance. Love the theater of war moves, the complexity of logistics, and sharp background music. Replayabilty is very satisfying. Greatly detailed manual as well. Highly recommend!

Though it has quite a bit of a learning curve, Unity of Command is an excellent turn-based strategy game, and is very realistic in the sense that spamming infantry simply won't work if you opponent is well set-up. The Supply Line feature is also very realistic. While it allows you to potentially thrust deep into enemy territory along the railroads, any enemy presence on those lines will cut off supply.

The game is good for both a defensive and offensive strategy, where units can entrench themselves, making a line of them near-impenetrable even with tanks, or by equiping your units with "specialists," or specific units, such as StuGs, T-34s, or Engineers, you can give them a huge advantage on the frontline. But above all, my favorite feature is the one that urges you to minimize loss of life. If a unit is destroyed, the overall morale will drop, and your troops will be less inclined to stand their ground.

Overall, this is a strong choice if you want a turn-based strategy game.

I was looking for a beginner-level turn based strategy game to ease myself back into the genre and Unity of Command ticks all the boxes. Simple to learn but surprisingly complex, like an up to date version of the old Panzer Generals games but with added depth.

Love this game. I've played through each of the campaigns at least twice and still get the urge to go back and have another go. Easy to learn, hard to master is a bit of a cliche but it is certainly true for this game, which is a breeze to get into but rewards experienced players for months afterwards.

Awesome wargame. Well worth the purchase. The DLC's actually add substantial content to the game in the form of many extra scenarios and unit types, so i can recommend them aswell. Get it while it's super cheap in the Christmas sales and you won't regret it.

Deep but accessable; strategic but simple. a great strategy game depicting battles between the germans and soviets in a board game style. the hotseat is particularly fun, and it is very easy to get friends that might not be into these types of games, to play with you, because its not over complicated. even with this increased accessability, it has a lot of features that hardcore wargamers will enjoy. the AI is top notch, and reacts dynamically to your actions. you can not just stupidly run your units into a death trap and expect to ram them through with sear force, you will probably die. instead, its better to pick specific units to attack at certain places, with others move ahead and fill in gaps. also, both sides have their strengths and weaknesses. the game is very well put together, and it has a lot of different scenarios for you to choose from, especially if you make the decision to purchase the DLC packs. bottom line, i highly recommend this game. its got a great single player AI, and the accessability of the game makes it wonderful to bring in newbies to play with. its almost like a wargame chess. easy to learn, hard to master, and certain pieces fill certain roles.

What can I say.A great game with great mechanics and many great missions and TONS of community created content.Seems like the perfect recipe for a great strategy wargame right?YOUR ♥♥♥♥ING WRONG,because the devs decided to use the Mein Kampf as a historical reference for the strenght of the armies in game,to the point where even in missions set in 1942 onward when the soviet and german units started to equal each other out you still find certain german units able to take on 2+soviet tank units and 4+soviet infantry...let's not forget how a german and a finnish infantry are supposedly the same.Yes apparently while moving out of it's defenses in finland a finnish infantry division has double the combat effectiveness of a soviet one.Wtf.Let's not forget how it's all the fault of the italians hungarians and romanians that germany lost the war and make their units have 1-1(attack-defense) stats!!*head scratching intesifies*.I cannot give the game a thumbs down tho,because the game itself is actually good,I just wish the racial profiling on units wasn't as profound and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I typically enjoy much more detailed wargames like Steel Panthers, but UoC has me hooked thanks to its near-perfect distillation of wargaming to something that is easily approachable, yet extremely rewarding for even the most grognardy of grognards.

I was expecting a fairly casual turn based strategy game where i could sit down with a cup of coffee and spent hours taking my enemies apart piece by piece, if like me thats what you want from a game, this is the wrong game.

To start with the AI is pretty ruthless, while there are people out there that hark on about "the good old days" of hard games as stardard, these days an option of 'Easy - Normal - Hard' is just common common courtesy and aids in enjoyment of the game for a wider audience, additionally there are (pretty restricting) time limits place on all objectives, so you're just getting into the scenario and then it ends - and you've lost, frustrating. these things combine to mean there is only 1 strategy to complete each scenario and thats just boring, I personally wanted to play with history, not follow it precisely or be slapped the the wrist!

So I cannot recommend this game, which is a shame, because I wanted to like it.